Kansas City, Mo. - When Arinze Onuaku collected his fourth foul during Tuesday night's game, he found a spot on the Syracuse bench while Rick Jackson substituted for him.
That rest was brief. The Orange men could not survive Kansas without their big starting center.
Much was made of the inside matchup between Onuaku and Kansas center Cole Aldrich. But Onuaku outplayed the KU big man, scoring 19 points, grabbing 12 rebounds, blocking four shots and providing an intangible presence for the Orange.
Onuaku and his teammates returned to their hotel after their win over Florida on Monday to watch the Kansas-Washington game. Onuaku listened to ESPN announcers extoll the virtues of Aldrich.
"I woke up this morning thinking about him," Onuaku said. "I saw the game last night. He had a great game. They were harping on him - Bobby Knight and all that. So I just took it personal and played hard for my team."
He played hard in plenty of areas.

With fewer than two minutes left in a tight, tense contest, Onuaku blocked two key shots, first flicking away an attempt by Sherron Collins and then quickly rejecting a shot by Marcus Morris.
"That's my middle. I gotta control the middle," he said. "Sometimes I'm in a lineup with Andy (Rautins) and Paul (Harris) in the back. I'm going after every ball. That's my job. I gotta go and get it."
He also stole a pass from Aldrich with 2:40 left in overtime. Seconds later, he was on the receiving end of an Andy Rautins' pass inside. Onuaku, whose name was bungled by the Sprint Center public address announcer both days of the CBE Classic Tournament, manuevered inside and lofted a short lefty hook that splashed through the net.
That shot gave SU a 79-76 lead.
Onuaku would finish the game with just one missed shot from the field. He was 8-of-9 there. He also converted all three of his free throws. As time finally drained off the game clock, his Orange teammates bumped chests and smiled with glee.
Onuaku simply walked slowly toward the SU bench, his right index finger held high, signalling his team was No. 1.
"At halftime," he said, "we said to ourselves, 'We gotta go out and get this one.' So everybody came together. Everybody made a big play down the stretch."
Road Warriors - Rautins and Eric Devendorf, each of them playing on reconstructed knees, were warriors for the Orange on Tuesday.
Both logged deep minutes into overtime. Rautins (33 minutes) drained a key 3-pointer to stretch SU's lead to 82-76 in overtime. And Devendorf (42 minutes) converted a layup on the SU break on a pass from Flynn. Those points gave SU an 84-76 advantage.
Rautins scored nine points and Devendorf had 20 in the Orange win.
"It felt great and I feel great right now," Devendorf said. "I've been here for four years and I've been through a lot of things. But this team right here is full of character. We've got great players on this team."
"I felt great. My wind felt good," Rautins said. "Going hard in practice has certainly helped me for the game."
Big three for MVP - Jonny Flynn said he wanted to atone for a mistake.
The SU point guard turned the ball over in the closing seconds of regulation. So with the clock ticking down and a hostile Kansas crowd up and shouting, Flynn sought redemption.
His 3-pointer from the wing with eight seconds left sent Tuesday's game into overtime.
"I saw it open up," he said. "I knew I wasn't passing that shot up. God was with me on that shot and I hit it."
Kansas cool - Sherron Collins came into Tuesday's game shooting 46 percent from 3-point range. The Jayhawks, as a team, were shooting 25 percent from 3-point range. And that included Collins' sterling numbers.
Against the Orange, the Kansas point guard scored 21 points. Included within that number was a 3-for-9 effort from beyond the arc. His most memorable three happened near the close of the first half, after a pass was deflected to him near the top of the arc.
Because of the shifting Syracuse defense, Collins was all alone there. He swished the shot, which jump-started a 9-0 KU run to close the half.
Kansas finished the game shooting 33 percent from 3-point range. The Jayhawks were 1-of-6 in OT.
Fixing mistakes -- The Orange was committing 17 turnovers per game before Tuesday night. By intermission of the Kansas game, SU had 10 turnovers and five assists.
SU guard Jonny Flynn said Monday that coach Jim Boeheim had warned his players at halftime of the Florida game to be more careful with the basketball. The Orange cleaned up its turnovers somewhat in the second half of that game.
In the Kansas outing, history repeated.
SU finished the game with 15 total turnovers. And that included the overtime stanza.
All-tourney - Members of the CBE all-tournament team included Sherron Collins and Paul Harris. Flynn, who scored a game-high 25 points, was the tournament MVP.
Donna Ditota can be reached at 470-2208 or dditota@syracuse.com.